Negative differential conductance effect and electrical anisotropy of 2D ZrB2 monolayers. (21st December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: An, Yipeng; Jiao, Jutao; Hou, Yusheng; Wang, Hui; Wu, Ruqian; Liu, Chengyan; Chen, Xuenian; Wang, Tianxing; Wang, Kun
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 31:Number 6(2019)
• Publication Date: 2018-12-21
• Subjects: nanodevices -- electronic transport -- negative differential conductance -- density functional theory -- non-equilibrium Green's function -- two-dimensional materials -- ZrB2 monolayer; Condensed matter -- Periodicals; Matière condensée -- Périodiques; Vaste stoffen; Vloeistoffen; Natuurkunde; Electronic journals; Computer network resources; 530.4105
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/aaf5b2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-8984

Abstract

Abstract: Two-dimensional (2D) metal-diboride ZrB2 monolayers was predicted theoretically as a stable new electronic material (Lopez-Bezanilla 2018 Phys. Rev. Mater .2 011002). Here, we investigate its electronic transport properties along the zigzag (z-ZrB2 ) and armchair (a-ZrB2 ) directions, using the density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function methods. Under low biases, the 2D ZrB2 shows a similar electrical transport along zigzag and armchair directions as electric current propagates mostly via the metallic Zr–Zr bonds. However, it shows an electrical anistropy under high biases, and its I – V curves along zigzag and armchair directions diverge as the bias voltage is higher than 1.4 V, as more directional B–B transmission channels are opened. Importantly, both z-ZrB2 and a-ZrB2 show a pronounced negative differential conductance (NDC) effect and hence they can be promising for the use in NDC-based nanodevices.